Collision course over public services

The TUC Congress agreed to co-ordinate campaigns and industrial action amid warnings that some unions have already started preparing to launch stoppages.

Thousands of Birmingham City Council workers are set to hold a mass meeting later this month to decide whether to take action against job losses.

Millions of workers are now on a collision course with the Government as the scale of the austerity measures unfolds, with the GMB union claiming nearly 7,000 job losses are already on their way in this region, with almost 150,000 identified nationally.

Leaders of the country's biggest unions lined up at the TUC conference in Manchester to lambast the coalition for its "reckless" spending cuts, which they said had already led to more than 200,000 job losses or threats of redundancies among public sector workers.

The general secretary of Unison, Dave Prentis, said it was a "lie" the country could not afford decent public services, arguing the Government was making cuts because it wanted to promote privatisation.

"If there's money available to bail out banks and bonuses, if there's money for war and Trident, there's money for our public services.

"If money is tight, never mind a pay freeze for our members, how about a pay freeze for bankers? We've seen enough of what they've done, we've had enough of their greed and arrogance.

"It's them, not our members, who should be doing more for less."

The general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, Bob Crow, who has called for civil disobedience to defend public services, drew loud applause from delegates when he said: "We lie down or stand up and fight."

Gail Cartmail, of Unite, said unions were facing the "fight of our lives".

The GMB union claims nearly 5,000 jobs are set to be cut at just four of the region's councils – Sheffield, Kirklees, Leeds and Bradford – and warned it would start planning next month for national strike action.

The figures have been challenged by council bosses, however, with Sheffield City Council leader Paul Scriven accusing union officials of scaremongering over the amount of jobs set to be lost due to cuts

The GMB's National Secretary for Public Services, Brian Strutton, said: "This government is trying to con the British public into thinking that there is no alternative to deficit reduction through fast and painful cuts.

"But as those cuts and their effects on the whole economy start to bite the mood will change.

"We need to feed that mood change from local level and be ready to support it at national level. That's why in GMB we begin our preparations for national industrial action next month."

Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union, said cutting Government budgets by 25 per cent or 40 per cent was "lunacy", adding that unions had to stop the cuts.

A survey of more than 1,000 adults for the FBU showed that nine out of 10 wanted the number of front-line firefighters to stay the same or be

increased.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber attacked the "demolition Government", warning that the current austerity drive would damage public services and cost huge numbers of jobs.

The GMB said Birmingham City Council was set to be the first test of unions working together to defend public services.

The council confirmed it had issued warning notices to 25,000 staff, but said no figure for any job cuts had been decided.